Digimon re:CONNECT
by Deekamon
Summary: Fifteen years ago, five digimon emerged into the real world; with no memory of the war they left behind, they settled down with human friends. When the lines between the worlds start to blur, they don't get a choice but to piece it together, lest their friends fall into the line of fire. Fan Digimon and Digidestined.
1. Chapter 1: Something Wicked

_A/N: Aaand we're live, after a year and a half of teasing! Woop woop. As with most FDD projects, this is a bit of a multimedia affair, so check out the website (digirecon dot webs dot com) for supplemental material, art, the like._

_To new people: this is an FDD fic, aiming to emulate a full season of Digimon, complete with its own rules, characters, and universe. Original characters, original digimon, original setup. If this turns you off, this is your chance to turn around.  
To those who've read re:GENESIS, my previous project: this has no overt continuity and thus reading re:GEN is not essential, but you might notice nods along the way, because I love mythology gags.  
_

_I will be updating on a biweekly schedule, but because otherwise it will have a really slow start, I'll be updating every Monday in December. (After that, I'm moving to Seattle at the start of January, soooo, I'll have to slow down somewhat). I apologize that it's kind of a not-too-unique start, but I need to put down groundwork before I can build up the fun bits. uwu_

_Reviews are my lifeblood, but the show goes on with or without them._

_Anyway! Awayyyy we go!_

* * *

It was about nine on a Saturday night, and the city of Atlas Park was parked right in the middle of a downright picturesque mid-May evening.

A razor-thin sliver of a waning crescent moon peeked out from behind a curtain of clouds. The air was warm, tempered by a gentle breeze; lights twinkled far away, and cars passed below. In the distance, the downtown district was thriving with the night-life.

And at least one girl was having none of that.

Natalie Adams sat on the roof of her family's apartment building, her legs dangling off the side. She was a girl on the taller side, with long ginger hair tied in a ponytail, pale skin, and green eyes. As she might have described herself: _a mess of recessive genes._

Her finals had wrapped up the preceding week, and soon she would have to begin scrambling to pick up hours at some mediocre summer job; these precious days to follow may well have been her only chance to unwind. Even so, she felt a creeping sense of unease in the pit of her stomach- something she couldn't quite explain away.

"You want to go down to the river?" she asked, tucking a strand of long ginger hair behind her ear as she turned to look to her right. Sitting right by her side was her best friend, though explaining that much might have proven difficult, if anyone else had seen him.

Natalie's best friend was a bird. ... well, a bird of sorts. For starters, he was approximately the size and stature of a human child. He had normal arms instead of wings, but his body was covered in inky-black feathers; his hands and feet were talons bare of feathers, though the skin was a none-too-natural-looking shade of lilac. There sat a large ruff of long, even-darker feathers around his neck and shoulders; his tail was covered in the same. Even longer feathers made up this tail, which was almost as long as his body itself, and despite its feathered nature, it seemed quite rigid and was bent obtusely in the middle.

All this was a description of what he would look like to the layman. To Natalie, all that could be boiled down to a single word.  
This was Raumon.

"Sure," Raumon replied with a nod, turning his head to look up at Natalie. The bird-creature's face face was far and away the strangest thing of him (and considering he was a child-sized bipedal bird, that was quite the feat). His face was shaped rather like a bird's, with a long beak protruding... but this face was pure-white, and looked quite like a mask, complete even with a thin black strap that looped around his head and seemed to hold it on. His eyes - large and pitch-black in their entirety, looking like holes in the mask - emoted perfectly well, able to quirk a non-existent eyebrow or have his eyes go wide. Indeed, it looked more like a plague-doctor's mask than a true bird's face.

Natalie stood up and threaded her fingers together as she stretched her hands far above her head. "Let's go, then."  
Night-time was the only time they - or rather, Raumon - could leave the apartment, for reasons that should have been quite apparent. Though Atlas Park never really silenced down entirely, it was still far easier to avoid prying eyes under cover of darkness. 

* * *

When the pair walked in, they passed the bedrooms of Natalie's sisters- both were in their respective rooms, doors closed. When she reached the living room, Natalie peered in around the lip of the doorway; her parents were watching an overwhelmingly corny old B-movie. From the sound of it, Natalie reckoned that it was _50-Foot Squid Monsters vs. The City of Cleveland_.

Truly: one of the great classics.

The pair waited for a moment; Natalie mouthed along with every line of stilted, poorly-acted dialogue, while Raumon mimed along with the actors on-screen, both knowing the film by rote.  
"Raumon and I are going out to the river," Natalie said after a moment, once there was a gap in the script (of course, to keep her family from missing out on any crucial plot development). "Back in a bit."

"Duly noted," her father said, not taking his eyes off the television.

Satisfied with that answer, Natalie plucked her car keys off of the ring and the pair set out. They gingerly crept down the flights of stairs and hallways that led down five stories to the ground, not wanting to draw the ire of any of their neighbors by galumphing through at high speed.  
They didn't fear being evicted - when it was said that it was her parents' apartment building, it was meant that her parents owned the building-, but if any angry neighbors came out and complained, Raumon would be a difficult pill to swallow. (They had no desire to be rude, of course, but the latter concern was more pressing than manners.)

In moments they were buckled in to Natalie's car, and Raumon seemed much more at ease once he was seated. He was short enough that, even sitting shotgun, the chances of any passersby seeing him were slim at best.

The river was in the city park, out near the western limits of Atlas Park (leading to the somewhat-amusing "Atlas Park City Park" sign); in a city that was rapidly developing every spare inch of land, the park was a green oasis. It was only a short drive, and one that they knew well enough to make blindfolded. The park was entirely empty when the pair pulled up into the parking lot; perfect, as far as they were concerned.

An old cobblestone bridge stretched across the river that ran through the park, and it was on this structure that Natalie and Raumon quickly found themselves standing. Here, they could focus on the rustle of leaves and the lazily-running water below, instead of the lights and noise of the city proper.

Two rows of tall trees - almost all that remained of an old grove that once stood near the edge of town - towered over the water's surface from either side, creating a natural ceiling and dropping stray leaves into the lazy water. On nights when the moon was fuller, it would shine beams down through the gaps; on a night like tonight, though, the only illumination came from the sparse street-lamps that had been set up on either side of the bridge and the ones that lined, in intervals, the walkways that zigzagged through the park.

The duo of bird and girl came here all the time; sometimes they came to sit and think, sometimes they merely came to get out, to pretend to be somewhere less developed and industrial for a short time. It was for the latter reason that they came out tonight. It was where they had met, so many years ago (or rather, where Natalie had found Raumon); it held a special significance to the pair.

"Feeling okay?" Natalie said, looking over to Raumon. The bird stretched his legs out and swayed his tail in response, loosening up his muscles and joints, and then nodded.

They hadn't been able to come out here that much recently. Natalie had been buried in frantic studying for weeks, and Raumon didn't feel wholly comfortable venturing out alone. He couldn't deny he was feeling a bit cooped up.  
He chose to chalk up the slightly uneasy feeling in his gut to this fact - never mind that he had just been cooped up just as much a dozen times in the past few years, for various reasons, and he had never felt quite this way before.

Well. Okay, maybe that shouldn't be "never mind"ed away.  
A long pause ensued, calm and quiet; it was not an awkward silence, but rather a serene one.

"I don't know," Raumon said after a long pause, tapping a claw to his beak. "I can't help but feel like something's not quite right." He spoke a bit apprehensively, not entirely sure if this was worth the bringing up; he was a bit taken aback when Natalie heaved a sigh of relief.

"Thank god, it's not just me, then," she said, miming wiping sweat off of her forehead with the back of her hand.

Raumon smiled, a thin line on the mask-like white of his face. "I should have known that you'd catch on, too," he said; his tail drifted from one side to another, almost like a dog wagging its tail.  
He (the both of them, really) had felt so odd all day, a strange sense of dread, of something bad on the metaphorical horizon. It was a premonition.

But they hadn't the slightest what it was for.

"It's not just the college thing," Natalie said. She had just completed her sophomore year; for a while, she had thought that perhaps the sinking feeling had been the nagging "I should be doing something" feeling she had noticed herself getting at the end of every school year, but this felt wholly different, if she paused to think. Lost in thought, she idly began running her fingers through the part of her hair that was tied back into a ponytail.

Raumon nodded once, tapping his beak again. He suddenly furrowed his brow and narrowed his eyes. He clambered up onto the wall of the bridge, peering over the side and into the darkness beyond the halo of light the street-lamps afforded them.

"What's up?" the girl asked when she noticed what her friend was doing. She picked Raumon up, hands under the armpits, and set him on top of the wall proper so that he no longer had to dangle as though trying to do a pull-up.

"I don't know," Raumon said slowly, sitting down and looking out over the water, into the trees. He craned his neck to look to his partner, shaking his head. "I thought I saw something. If I did, it's gone now."

Natalie nodded once, leaning forward on the wall. "I'm sure it was nothing," she said; she wasn't actually sure of anything, but she was hardly about to let it get to her. It was probably just a squirrel; Raumon thought the same, and didn't think further.

They stayed there in relative quiet for perhaps fifteen minutes more. They were relatively quiet, taking advantage of the still. Nothing else came up; the wind rustled the trees, the water flowed beneath them, and every now and then a bat swooped down to snap up a mosquito from near the surface of the water, but nothing that gave either of them cause for alarm showed its face.

The silence was only broken when Natalie snapped her head up. She saw a light in the distance, heard the whir of bicycle wheels- someone was out riding their bike through the park at the ripe hour of nine-thirty at night.

"Raumon, someone's coming," she said in a hushed tone and tapped the bird on the shoulder gently. She meant it to be a signal for them to go. Unfortunately, Raumon was a bit too lost in thought; the gentle tap was a bit of a rude awakening, and instead of being roused, he half-squawked, half-squeaked, and jerked forward.

This is a course of action that ended with a splash and one very wet mass of feathers.

The passing night-cyclist cast Natalie a very strange look as she peered over the lip of the bridge while trying to stifle a giggle or ten, but suspected nothing.

When Raumon's face breeched the surface of the water again, he took in a gulping gasp of air from behind his mask.  
"You know," he said, and though he was very wet his tone was quite dry, "there are other ways to warn me when someone's coming." He hoisted himself out of the water and onto the riverbank, and within a few seconds he was standing astride Natalie again. Even though the air was warm, between the darkness and the chill of the water, he was shivering visibly.

"You know, you're lucky I don't care if you get the inside of my car wet," Natalie said blithely, smiling down at the soggy bird, "or I'd hang you up to dry for a few hours before we went home. Come on," she said, beginning to walk back to her car. Raumon was quick to follow, even as he threw one last look over his shoulder. Seeing nothing, he was hot on the heels of his friend.

With backs turned, they did not notice that a shape in the dark shifted and shimmered, a dark-hued _something_ visible for just a second before it faded away. 

* * *

One corner of Natalie's room, a square of space about five feet square between the foot of Natalie's bed and the wall, was designated space for Raumon. It was occupied primarily by a nest of blankets and pillows, built over a large bean-bag chair used as a base. When they had moved into and taken ownership of this apartment building, Natalie's family had offered him another space, but he had refused, insisting he was perfectly content with the arrangement he had. Most of his belongings were buried in this 'nest'- a little chest full of feathers and other trinkets, a scrapbook full of pressed flowers, books of a more conventional sort, candies, all sorts of things.

Really, while it was nominally "Natalie's room", it was "Natalie and Raumon's room" among the family. The strange bird creature had been part of the family ever since Natalie had found him fifteen years ago (though he had been quite a different creature back then); they had all long-since adjusted, and Natalie's younger sisters didn't even remember a time without him in the family. It had always made it difficult for the girls to bring friends to sleep over; this was never a problem for Natalie, but for Madison and Alexis, her younger sisters, it was usually solved by having Nat and Raumon sequester in their room as long as the younger girls' friends were over.

Luckily, they were always content to sequester themselves in their room at any rate, and that's what they did once they returned from their little jaunt to the river.

It was ten-thirty now; the awesomely bad movie on TV had come to its poorly-acted conclusion and another was starting up- _50-Foot Squid Monsters vs. The City of Omaha_ (it was the sequel, you see). Natalie knew this not because she had ventured out into the living room, but because she had switched on her own television, tuned into the same channel as her parents. She left it on for the background noise as she surfed the internet on her laptop, cup of tea at her side. Sitting beside her, Raumon was reading his way through Natalie's copy of _Alice in Wonderland_.

All in all, a very routine night.

So routine, in fact, that when it was disturbed by a loud _THUNK!_ from the roof, Natalie just about jumped a mile. She quite obviously didn't, of course, in a literal sense, but she definitely _did_ spill hot tea all over her front, and the scalding hot liquid soaking her shirt was literal enough to put her in a sour mood in a heartbeat.  
"What on earth was that?" she blurted out, peering up to the ceiling as though she might be able to see through it.

When she asked, she heard another sound- like heavy, crunching footsteps, like someone above was stomping around.

"Curiouser and curiouser," Raumon said wryly. He paused, looking to Natalie. "Do you think we should take a look?"

At that moment, they heard Natalie's mother's voice drift through the door. "Nat, dear, could you go see what's making that noise?"

Natalie pulled one side of her mouth back, a sort of _well, there's our answer._ Theirs was the only apartment with roof access, but not the only one on the top level; if they didn't take care of what ever was going on, they were going to start having to field complaints. "Just a second!" she called back. "I'm changing my shirt," she explained to Raumon; the bird nodded, and pointedly looked back into his book, averting his eyes out of politeness.  
The girl was changed in a flash. She looked at Raumon and nodded; he gingerly put in a bookmark to keep his place as he set his book down, hopping off of his friend's bed and to his feet.

Just as a precaution, Natalie grabbed her wooden baseball bat and hoisted it over her shoulder before she stepped out of her room. 

* * *

A pair of wings beat against the air as boots clomped against the concrete, taking back-alleys and side-streets to avoid any other human life.

"I swear to god, you'd better be sure of this."

"If it isn't what I think it is, I'll eat the weird pudding you've had in the back of the fridge since last year."

"Hm."

"Just trust me! It might be dangerous, and we may be the only ones who stand a chance, you know?"

After all, what were the chances of there being any others? 

* * *

The pair headed out into the hallway and up the stairs that led up to the roof of their building. When they opened the door that opened to the roof, they weren't quite sure what to expect.

But whatever they may have expected, it sure wasn't what they saw.

Standing in the middle of the roof, and looking like it was trying to hit its way through, was...  
Well, it sure wasn't a _person_, that was for sure, even though it resembled one in the basic ways.

It was tall, and human-shaped - except for the large, clawed dragon feet and long ears. What skin they could see was pale powder-blue, but it admittedly wasn't much skin; it wore a white tank-top and ragged grey pants, but more importantly, its face was covered by a nearly-featureless white mask. Two long horns curved up from its forehead, and dark-purple marks were displayed under red eyes, but that was it. From under its mask, a shaggy mane of red hair grew; green belts made of thorny vine criss-crossed its chest, holding - of all things - a stuffed blue bear on its back. Gauntlets made of wood - and Natalie had to take a second look to ensure that they were in fact wood - covered its hands, and it carried one wooden sword in each hand.

And when they opened the door and looked at it, it lifted its head and stared at Natalie and Raumon unblinkingly.

"Okay, what's with the costume?" Natalie said, sounding far braver than she felt. She wielded her baseball bat as though it was a sword, rooting herself to the ground.

Raumon, just behind her, tensed up in preparation for... something. He didn't know what, exactly, but he was all but frozen to the spot, waiting. "It's a Yasyamon," he said, quiet; Natalie wasn't even sure she heard him correctly.

The human-like creature - Yasyamon? - tilted its head, and boy oh boy, did it move in a way that didn't look natural. Its body was just so slightly limp, its torso hanging back and its head rolling when it moved. Its eyes focused on Raumon; it all but looked straight through Natalie. It was disturbing in no small part.

"What are you-" the girl said, frowning slightly as Yasyamon began to move its arms. It lifted both of its wooden swords above its head. When they were both held aloft, it yelled two words:

"**Double Strike**!"

With a brilliant flash of light, it was no longer holding two swords, but instead one, held above its head with both hands. Its blade was no longer wooden, but wicked-sharp steel, and it glowed like a beacon in the dark night.

"What the _hell!?_" Natalie blurted, before she could stop herself, nearly dropping her baseball bat, but it was lucky that she didn't. In the blink of an eye, the blue creature leapt forward, bringing its sword down at Raumon. Before she knew what she was doing, Natalie held the bat out horizontally, using it to try and stop the sword.  
The wooden bat was cleaved smoothly in half and Natalie stumbled backwards as she let go to avoid being sliced. Even so, Yasyamon's sword once more separated into two once it hit the wood of the bat, and Raumon took his chance.

Acting on pure instinct, the bird reared one hand back, and it was immediately engulfed in a strange purple glow. "**Symptom Claw**!" he yelled, slashing out at Yasyamon's legs with the glowing claw.  
He struck its left leg; Raumon's attack tore two long rips in the other's pant leg, and cut into its leg proper as well. When his claws dragged through, the glow seeped out of his hand and into the flesh of Yasyamon's leg.

Yasyamon snarled and stumbled backwards, and began to wield its two swords again.

"What are you doing?" Natalie asked breathlessly, still a bit shell-shocked from her experience with being too close to a razor-sharp blade.

"I have _no_ idea," Raumon answered truthfully; he would have cast a distressed look to his friend, had he not been too aware to turn his eyes away. "What do you want?" he said, louder, trying to sound braver, preparing his claws for another attack.

"Found you," Yasyamon said, as though that were _any_ sort of sufficient explanation. "And I'm not leaving without you! **Double Strike**!" he cried again, lifting his wooden blades above his head, and once again, a flash of light replaced the twin weapons with one, and lunged forward as he swung it down.  
Raumon was simply not able - no matter how prepared he was- to take a hit from Yasyamon's sword full-on. Though its blade was sharp, it had a concussive effect, sending the bird tumbling head over heels backwards into the knee-high concrete wall that bordered the roof of the building.

"Raumon!" Natalie cried out, getting to her feet, rushing to her friend's side. He was dazed; he had hit his head on the concrete. Yasyamon, with no regard to the girl in his way, began to lift his swords again.

It was at this point that something happened.  
A powerful gust of wind blew past; as the air passed over them, a small orb of light appeared in Natalie's hands. It swirled, gaining mass very quickly, and took on a purple glow not unlike the glow that had engulfed Raumon's hand when he attacked Yasyamon. Within seconds, there was a small device in Natalie's hands where there had been nothing before.

It was comparable in size to a phone or an mp3 player, but beyond that, it was like no device Natalie had ever used. It wasn't quite rectangular - one end was slightly rounder and broader than the other. It was black and shiny, marked with purple and white accents, and it was bizarrely hard to tell if it it was made of metal or plastic. It had an octagonal screen that was sleek and black, and just below that, what looked like a power meter glowed with a dim yellow light. A black wrist-strap was attached to its bottom end, and a row of small grey buttons lined the right edge of the device.

"What the _hell_," Natalie blurted again, a bit frantic. She looked from Yasyamon - who had paused as well, curious - back down at the little device, and back again. "What is this!?"

If she had known what the thing was, she would have been relieved; but she didn't, so her panic was just intensifying. After all, all of this was happening, and she had _no freaking clue_ what was going on.

"I don't know," Raumon groaned, as he pulled himself up to his feet with a little help from his friend.

"Hm," Yasyamon murmured, narrowing his red eyes, but he lifted his swords aloft again. "**Double Strike**!" Once more, the swords began to glow and become one. He swung them down, prepped to hit both Natalie and Raumon with his blade before the latter could find his bearings.

Natalie bit back a yell of panic. In a last ditch effort to protect Raumon and herself, Natalie lifted the little device above her head, trying to use the little palm-sized device as a shield.

She did not expect this to _work_.

But work it did- the sword hit the device, and it was like Yasyamon's combined sword was wooden and trying to strike a steel shield. It stopped cold, and a loud metallic _clangk!_ rang out in the night. The hit resonated through the device and through Natalie, making all of her bones shake.

As Yasyamon's swords split apart once more, the device began to glow. Purple light began to swirl around it, and by extension, around Natalie's hand, as the first segment of the yellow power meter flickered out. The screen turned on; a rush of strange characters flashed across the display, far too fast and too much for Natalie to make any sense of.  
Raumon looked at his hands as an identical light began to swirl around his hands- and then the rest of him. Though he had no idea what was going on, he felt no fear- he somehow knew this was good. The same could not be said of Natalie, who was frozen with shock and alarm.

As the light overcame Raumon entirely, he began to change.

"Raumon, Drive Evolve to..."  
He remained bipedal as he grew, becoming more humanlike; his body elongated until he was well over a foot taller than Natalie herself. His body was covered by a long, tattered black coat, with sleeves that came down past the tips of his clawed fingertips. Long white hair replaced his head-feathers, tied into a ponytail in the back.  
Tall steel-toed boots covered his feet, and a long, wide-brimmed hat lay atop his head. His beaked mask now two-toned, the left side being white and the right, black, with red streaks under each eye. It was smaller, only covering the top half of his now more human-like, grey-skinned face, but much of the lower half of his face was still hidden by the large, loose collar of fabric around his neck.

Once he had formed fully, he twirled his hand in the air and procured a staff from thin air. It was wooden, and topped with a tremendous red gem; strapped to the gem were a pair of white bird masks, one sorrowful and one angry. He slashed this new staff through the air, before spreading his arms. He spoke quietly, his voice serene and solemn.  
"**Doctorimon**!"

"_What the hell_," Natalie yelled one more time, for good measure. This had happened once before, years ago- but not nearly so spectacularly. Raumon had been in a much smaller, more... amorphous form when she had found him. He had been called Pestimon, then, but maybe five years after they met, he simply grew to the Raumon they knew now. He had just been growing up, and he was an odd little creature- they had come to accept that.  
Had he just changed for good again?

She couldn't imagine this was going to be easy to explain to the masses.

Raumon - Doctorimon - looked down at Natalie, who was still sitting flabberghasted on the roof. He tilted his head just so, so that she could see a faint, thin smile. It was reassuring, in a way.  
But a moment later, he turned his attention back to Yasyamon, and then his demeanor changed- he seemed almost detached.

"I don't know what you want of us," he said, and his voice was somewhat deeper; he didn't need to speak above a whisper to sound intimidating. "But you will not have it."

"I'm not leaving without-!" Yasyamon spat, lifting his swords again. This time, though, Rau- _Doctorimon_ was first to get his words out.

"**Poison Bloom**!" he said, and from inside of his tattered sleeves, his hand - still a purple-tinted talon, just like Raumon's - was now holding a strange, ethereal black rose. He did not hesitate; he swiped it down through the air, and in its wake was released a shower of razor-sharp black petals that rushed at Yasyamon like bullets.

Yasyamon snarled, and twirled his twin wooden swords. Even as the attack pushed him back, and caused him clear pain, he was still going to try and fight back. "**Double Strike**!" he yelled, moving almost too fast to see. He clapped his swords together one last time, combining them. He twirled his sword with a flourish, and struck out at Doctorimon.

Once more, his sword was stopped in its tracks- this time, by Doctorimon's staff. They crossed sword and staff, and locked with each other. "Had you not tried to harm my friend," Doctorimon said, calm and quiet, "this may have turned out differently for you. **Face of Judgment**!"  
A careful observer would notice that Doctorimon carefulyl oriented his staff so that the more hostile-looking of the masks on his staff was facing towards his opponent.

This was deliberate, it seemed. The gem began to glow; it looked like red light was spilling from the eyes on the pair of masks. Under its own power, the beak on the angered mask opened. From the opened beak, a stream of black flames began to spill out, licking over Yasyamon's skin.

Yasyamon roared loudly, and something changed. Yasyamon's body shifted, becoming pixellated. Natalie half wondered if she was seeing things, as it really looked like a real-life object was becoming lower-resolution. Within seconds, Yasyamon's body burst into glowing pixels, a shower of motes of light. The specks of light - or whatever they were - swirled around each other, aimless but pretty to watch. The little device in Natalie's hands beeped quietly, and as though it was a signal, almost all of the light (some of it scattered) organized itself into a thin beam and shot into the device.  
Another soft beep, and the missing segment of the power meter lit up again. A trio of words, small and faint, flashed in the bottom of the display:

_D-RIVE CHARGE: FULL_.

And then it was quiet again except for the cars in the distant downtown.

Doctorimon turned to look to Natalie; he bowed his head, and he bowed proper, with a slight flourish of his staff.  
"Raumon, you, uh," the girl said, finding her voice as she stood up. "... you look good." She spoke with a bit of irony in her voice.

"Is this gonna be permanent? Because we may have to stop going to the river if I can't drive you there without getting stared at," she continued; her voice had a tinge to it that made it unclear whether she was joking or not.

"I don't think so," Doctorimon replied, shaking his head once. This was, right on-cue, when the purple light returned. He was a bit surprised, but he stayed calm as streaks of energy began to swirl around his body again. This time, instead of making him grow and turn into something new, when he was engulfed by the light, he began to shrink.  
When the light faded, he was once more small and feathered- back to Raumon.

Natalie couldn't help herself from smiling, a sense of relief washing over her. She knew, of course, that Raumon was still Raumon at the end of the day and regardless of form, but it was still a comfort to have him back in black-feathered travel size once again. 

* * *

"I think that was..."

"Hm?"

"Well, you'll see. If it is, I mean."

"Only one way to find out."

After all- after the mysterious force that brought electronic gadgets on the wind, tonight was probably just going to keep getting weirder. 

* * *

About fifteen minutes passed as they tried to collect their nerves and figure out what was going on. Natalie turned the little device in her hands over and over, but she couldn't find a function to shrink her friend back to normal. In fact, she couldn't make much sense of the thing at all. She sat on the concrete wall, facing inwards, and Raumon sat alongside her, peering over at the device.

What she discovered: the buttons on the side, when pressed, all caused different things to spring up on the screen, all stark white and purple on black. There was a little tab on the bottom of the side, a little pull-away tab; it looked, in all honesty, like a port for a mini-USB. While all of this was certainly interesting, it was also wholly without context.

"So that thing was..." Natalie said slowly, after she determined she was going to get no useful information out of the little gizmo.

"A digimon," Raumon said, nodding his head once. "Like me."

_Digimon_.  
Raumon had used the word before, of course; he had explained that there were a lot of them, that they came in all shapes and sizes, but he had also said that, as far as he knew, he may have been the only one _here_.

Natalie had asked plenty of questions over the years; she knew her fair share, but Raumon's memory had always been spotty. She had no reason to believe he was deliberately withholding information from her (as he was in fact not), so her understanding was incomplete. They didn't know why Yasyamon was here, or what he wanted, or what he meant when he had said _found you_.  
This was just too much to work through.

"I don't understand it," Natalie said; she hated to admit as much, about anything, but there was no way around it.

"Neither do I, Natalie," Raumon said with a shake of his head.

She looked down at the electronic gadget in her hand. She turned it over in her palm; it was very lightweight, but Yasyamon's sword smashing into it at full force hadn't so much as scratched it. She breathed out, making a note to herself to examine it later as she stowed it in her pocket.

No sooner than she had done this, Natalie almost had a heart attack for the second time that night.

She was _really_ getting sick of surprises.

"Hey," a voice said- the voice of a terribly bored young man from not far away. Natalie leapt to her feet and whipped around; Raumon ducked, even though it would have been hard to see him over the concrete wall even if he had been standing up straight.

"Hi," Natalie said, straightening herself up and doing an excellent job of pretending to be composed, even though she had no idea where she was supposed to be speaking to. She looked around, but didn't see anything until she looked onto the fire escape of the next building over. Standing on the top level and leaning forward on the railing was a young man who was hard to miss, once she set eyes on him.

He was dressed in blue camo-patterned pants and high-topped combat boots. The sides of his head were shaved, the middle stripe of hair loosely spiked and hanging in his face. His belt hung at an angle around his waist, and matching leather cuffs adorned his wrists. Underneath his black vest but atop his white tank-top, a silver dog tag glinted in the low light.

"Looks like I got here late, huh," the man said, looking up at Natalie. His voice and face were both completely impassive, impossible to read.

How much had he seen? Natalie's mind went into panic mode for a moment. "You-" she began, but before she could say another word, the boy reached into his pocket.

"Let's cut the shit. You happen to have one of these?" he asked, pulling something out and holding it up for Natalie to see. It was a device, absolutely identical to the one in Natalie's pocket, except for the colour- where hers was purple, his was blue, and the faintly-glowing power meter was orange in lieu of yellow.

Natalie nodded numbly, reaching into her own pocket and holding hers up in the same way. She would have liked it if her tight-lipped behavior had the effect of making her seem as detached as it made the boy, but she knew the chances of that were incredibly slim.

"Good," the boy said, then peered down. "Come on," he said to seemingly nothing in particular, raising his voice just enough to make it carry a bit further. It echoed in the alleyway between the buildings, and then the sound of garbage cans being knocked over echoed back up as something came out from behind them.

_Something_ being a word that here meant _an enormously huge bat_.

She was the size of Raumon, at least- actually, she was probably bigger than he was. Her entire body was steel blue of various shades, except for her muzzle and a jagged ruff of white fur around her neck, which were white. The insides of her ears, her underbelly, and the membrane of her wings were all the same lighter shade; markings on her forehead and haunches were darker, as were her feet in their entirety. The edges of her wings - that is, the parts that weren't webbing - were the darker colour, as well, and at the crest of her wings, she had a pair of fingers and a thumb- some form of rudimentary hands (despite wings, strictly, speaking, already being hands).

She had big spade-shaped ears and big orange claws on her feet; her eyes were the same orange, set in black sclera. Her wings were tattered, but this didn't seem to impede her ability to fly; to complete the ragged look, a rounded notch was missing out of her left ear.

The bat flapped her way up at high speed, before landing deftly on the railing of the fire escape landing that the boy stood on.

"Howdy howdy," she chirruped, cheerful and high-pitched, with an upwards inflection at the end that made her sound like a squeaky toy for a split second.

If that wasn't another digimon, Natalie would _eat her bandana_. She gave a sideways glance to Raumon; his brow was furrowed, as though he were trying to puzzle something out.

"Name's Xander Neal," the young man said, and then tilted his head to indicate the bat. "This is Desmon."

Natalie paused, hesitating just a moment before returning the courtesy. "I'm Natalie," she said, "Adams. And this -"

Raumon peeked up, now, peering over the concrete wall that just moments before he had been hiding behind. "Raumon," the bird introduced himself. 

* * *

Around the city, these two were hardly the only ones to receive the little devices- not by a long shot. On a young man's desk, on a young girl's bed, and almost lost, tangled in the cords of a computer setup, three more - one after the other - appeared with their own swirls of light and no explanation to speak of.


	2. Chapter 2: The New Transmission

_A/N: Whoops, that took a bit longer than I expected, due to some stuff happening. Any rate. Still going to attempt to get two more chapters out this month, and the next one will be on-time! Next Monday. Aw yeah._

* * *

"We're cutting this one short," Xander said, returning his microphone to the stand. "I got a thing I need to do today."

The time: Sunday, 3 PM. The place: a busted, broken garage. The reason: a busted, broken garage band.

Around him, the other members of the band mumbled their 'sure, alright's. It was around this time that their Sunday band practices usually devolved into unabashed screwing around, so it wasn't as though they were really missing out on any valuable rehearsal time. They had a gig coming up in a few weeks, but they'd handle that like they always handled their gigs: preparing frantically at the last second. (Hey, it worked so far.)

Desmon was sitting over on the beat-up couch, helping herself to a bag of cheese balls. The band members were more than used to their furry companion; they viewed her as something of a mascot. A mascot that they couldn't show to anyone outside of the band, but a mascot nonetheless.

"Hey, Desmon, are there any of those left?" Paul asked, playing a few odd notes on his guitar before he began the process of unplugging his amp.

"Juuuust a minute," the bat chirped, tipping the bag backwards to snag one last mouthful before tossing the bag over.

"Thanks, my wingy-flingy friend," the blonde guitarist said, popping one of the salty snacks into his mouth. "So what is it you're doing, Xander?"

"I have to go save the president of Nicaragua, thanks for asking," Xander said dryly, holding out his arm like a falconer. Desmon knew her cue, and hopped into the air, flapping over and perching on her friend's upper arm and shoulder.

"You got a date or somethin'?" Eric said, wiggling his eyebrows in the least subtle of suggestive ways, idly twirling his drumsticks. This being his garage, and his house, he wasn't so concerned with putting his stuff away in a rush.

"Yes," Xander deadpanned, his eyelids drooping. "I have a hot date, at 3 PM on a Sunday, and have absolutely neglected to tell you about it." The sarcasm was so thick, you could cut it with a knife. "Bite me."

No, he had agreed to meet up with Natalie- or rather, had said "meet me at the Lotus Café tomorrow", and expected them to show up. After all, standing on a rooftop and a fire escape at 11 PM did not make for the greatest circumstances. (Moreover, Xander got the distinct impression that the people who lived in the building whose fire escape he was using were starting to get pissed. Not that he particularly cared, but he didn't want to try and explain Desmon away.)  
And he _definitely_ didn't want to explain this to his bandmates. Yeah, they were familiar with Desmon, but this was information that was filed solidly under the heading of _need to know_.

"Well, don't get yourself killed. We need you for the gig, wait until after that," Will said, packing his bass away.

Xander replied only by flipping their bassist off; Will smirked in reply.

* * *

Xander and Desmon had been following Yasyamon the previous night- a pursuit that led them, instead, to Natalie and Raumon. They had simply seen something leaping from rooftop to rooftop while Xander been on Will's balcony. He had come over to try and hammer out a song, but instead found themselves standing outside, trying to get away from the sound of the upstairs neighbors holding a party- the kind populated primarily by drunken frat boys. Desmon had insisted on following the sword-wielding digimon, acting on a whim and a hunch.  
Really, if not for Xander's desire to get away from the upstairs neighbors, he might not have obliged. They had taken off on foot in pursuit; it moved too erratically for them to be able to reliably follow it by car, and so they chose to take the slower, _finer-tipped_ (so to speak) approach.

On their way there, they might not have noticed the sudden gust of wind that blew through the streets- but they definitely noticed the blue light that accompanied the arrival of the little blue-and-black gadget that now rested, not mentioned to anyone since last night, in Xander's pocket.

Though he had no way to prove it, he had the distinct feeling that he and Natalie weren't the only ones who had been visited by the _mysterious gizmo fairy_. He was right, of course, but right now, Natalie was his only lead.

* * *

In a few moments, Xander had bid goodbye to his bandmates, and he and Desmon had settled into his beat-up car.  
"It's unreal, don't you think?" Desmon said cheerfully as Xander put the key in the ignition. "Finding another digimon!"

"I'm assuming you didn't mean the one with swords," the human said, glancing sidelong at the bat. No, that one had been a rogue; if there was someone else with the little device, that... that may have meant something. Maybe.

"Welllll... that was pretty wild too. But no, yeah, I meant the bird," Desmon confirmed, twitching her ears. "He seemed familiar somehow."

Xander made a small noncommittal noise, a low, short hum.

* * *

"You're going to wait in the car for now," Xander said as they pulled into the parking lot (or really, parking _strip_) behind the Café.

"Aww, what?" Desmon exclaimed, indignant. "Why?"

"Well, for one, we're in a public place," Xander replied, putting the car into park (with a haphazard, somewhat-askew parking job- but hey, he was inside the lines, it counted).

"Why couldn't we have met somewhere where there won't be other people?" the bat mumbled.

"Because I don't want her to think I'm going to chloroform her and have her wake up in my nonexistent basement."

Desmon paused. "Point."

"Second, because it's a long drive back to the apartment and I'm lazy." Desmon snickered at that; Xander smirked, and continued. "I'll leave my iPod and my keys. Try not to get anyone's attention," he said, getting out and leaning his head in to talk to talk to Desmon. (His car windows were tinted, which helped keep Desmon low-key, but still.)

"Roger-dodger," the digimon replied, giving a thumbs-up as she picked up her friend's Mp3 player, albeit a bit clumsily, with the hands atop her wings. Xander nodded once, locked the doors, and made his way towards the front door of the Café. He scanned the tables inside as he passed by the front window. It was almost entirely empty; that tended to be the case. The Lotus Café was either completely packed, or almost entirely empty. There was no middle ground.

But still, he caught sight of one occupied table in the back corner; a familiar red-headed girl, tapping at her phone and looking guarded, with a ceramic mug of tea seat to cool.

Bingo.

The tinkling of the bell attached to the door as Xander entered caught her attention; she looked up, and raised a hand in greeting, but said nothing.

"Hey," he said simply, inviting himself to sit down across from her.

"So," Natalie said, sitting forward a bit more. Looking at him up close, he noticed a couple things she hadn't seen last night- namely, the multitude of piercings. He had no less than five pierces of silver jewelry in his face, and between them and his disconcertingly yellowish brown eyes (were those contacts?), he had a very harsh look to him.

Not lying: it made her a bit uncomfortable.

"You've got a digimon too," Xander said, ever one to skip right to the point. He spoke quietly, so as not to give their conversation away to prying ears of the barista slacking off, reading, behind the counter, but he had no interest in beating around the bush.

"Yes," Natalie said, staying guarded, both in terms of how much she spoke, and physically- she sat back and folded her arms when she spoke.

"Hm." Xander frowned slightly. "Had you ever seen another digimon before last night?"

Natalie shook her head. "No. Not as far as I know, at any rate."

Xander ran a hand backwards through his hair, sighing through his nose. "Then you're just as much in the dark as I am. Fantastic."

"I'm sorry?" Natalie tried, quirking an eyebrow. "This is as new to me as it is to you, you know. I just spent fifteen years thinking my best friend was the only thing like him in the city - heck, the world, far as I knew!"  
She stopped and took a sip of her tea; she was getting a bit too animated, she knew. "But then in one night, I get one making threats on my life, some mysterious force gives me a gadget that made my friend do a form-change thing, and then another shows up that he thinks he knows from somewhere. And then _her_ friend grills me in a coffee shop."

Natalie paused again. Xander's eyebrows had both shot up.

"... I've had a really weird day, is what I'm saying," Natalie summarized, calmly taking another sip of tea.

"Well, that gives me something to work with," Xander admitted, smirking a bit. Mostly, it was a confirmation of experiences - primarily that she had been with her digimon for fifteen years - the same as him - and that the same experience had granted them the little device, at the same time.  
But it also gave him a bit of insight into what the device did. He had poked at it all of last night, and still had no clue what to make of any of it.

... kind of.

Whatever. Progress was progress.

"So what happened last night?" Xander asked, kicking his chair back and balancing it on the back two legs, ignoring the barista's disengaged mumble of _four on the floor, please_.

Natalie thought for a moment, and thought back. She told of the noise on top of their apartment, then finding Yasyamon; she recounted the fight, though not blow-for-blow, and when the little device had appeared in her hands, and when it made Raumon turn into Doctorimon- or maybe _let him turn into Doctorimon_ was a better phrase. She retold the entire experience up until Xander and Desmon had shown up, and felt safe in assuming she could stop there. She spoke quietly, casting looks over to the barista occasionally; luckily, he was thoroughly zoned out, or at least seemed to be.

"Hm. That's it, then?" Xander asked.

Natalie nodded into her tea.  
She deliberately chose not to mention the incident by the river; she didn't care to bring it up, as she wasn't wholly sure it had anything to do with anything. Regardless, she made a mental note to delve into that on her own time. Raumon's gut feelings, and her own as well, were usually good.  
She just wasn't sure how much she could trust this new guy.

And such as it was, Xander wasn't so certain of how much to trust this new girl, either.

"Give me your phone number," he said without preamble. When Natalie yet again raised an eyebrow, he shrugged one shoulder. "If we find anything out, it'd be useful. Or if another digimon like Yasyamon shows up."  
He expected they would; call it a hunch.

Yeah- that was just his razor-sharp lightning brain at work, putting the pieces together.  
Please, hold your applause.

"I suppose I can't argue with that," Natalie said after a minute, nodding her head. She rattled off her cell phone number; Xander thumbed it into his phone in one go. He gave his in return, and within moments, their contact information had been shared.  
"What I think," Natalie said, pocketing her phone, "is that there's a connection."

"Mm," Xander said, closing his eyes and leaning back.

Natalie's eyebrow twitched a bit. "The thing made Raumon stronger. We wouldn't have gotten them if we didn't need them."

"And we wouldn't need them," Xander said, cutting her off and cracking one eye open, "if there weren't more freaks of the week like Yasyamon. Am I right?"

Oh _boy_ was Nat getting tired of this guy's attitude in record time. "That _was_ the point I was getting to, yes," she said, calming herself afterwards with a long sip of tea.

Xander nodded, letting his chair legs clatter to the floor. He paused, sighed, and rubbed his chin in thought. There was a lot he could say, but right now, nothing was certain. A rogue digimon had appeared; it had been 'looking' for Raumon, at the least; more might appear, or they might not.  
Plans are impossible to make, after all, when the future that affects those plans is a big, resounding question mark, and he wasn't about to exhaust energy worrying about things he had no way of preparing for.

"Well, this has been enlightening," Xander said; his tone made it hard to tell how sarcastic he was being. Behind them, the bell on the door rang gently; a party of teenagers, about five strong, was entering.  
That was their cue to leave.

"It was good meeting you in a place that wasn't on a fire escape," Natalie said, finishing her drink and standing up; Xander smirked. "We'll see each other again, I'm sure."

"Probably," Xander confirmed, nodding. They didn't part ways just yet; they had both parked behind the Café, and had to loop around to the back.

Desmon rolled down the window of Xander's car half-way when he and the girl approached. "Hi!" she chirped over the sudden blast of funk-rock she was pumping over the car stereo. Natalie smiled and lifted a hand in greeting. "If Xandie's been rude, don't mind it. He's just like that," the bat said, her ears twitching as she beamed.

"I'll keep it in mind," Natalie said; Xander rolled his eyes. She continued her way down the row of cars; Xander did not wait and watch, instead climbing into his driver's seat.

"So how'd it go?" Desmon said, looking over at her friend as the car rumbled to life.

Xander shrugged one shoulder, pulling out of his parking space.

"I just really hope we don't get stuck playing crisis reaction squad together," he said, and left it at that, and set his mind to mentally charting the route for his apartment.

* * *

Neither Xander nor Natalie had noticed the subtle, knowing expression that the barista cast to the pair as they left, nor the small, secret, almost hopeful smile that pulled one corner of his mouth up.

* * *

Desmon went on at great length the entire drive back. Oh, she talked about nothing in particular; just whatever ideas sprang to her mind, non-stop.

"So all I'm saying is that you totally should have got me a muffin or something. The muffins they make there are the best."

Xander had long ago learned that there were times when Desmon had anything useful to say, and that there were times he could safely tune out. This was one of the latter times. (In full fairness, though, Desmon was perfectly aware that her friend was disengaged, and began saying things simply to see the non-reaction she would get.)

This is how, as Xander pulled into his parking space, Desmon was in the middle of saying: "... so, the point is that I stole like all your boxers and shot them at passing children, and that's why the elastic might be a bit worn out."

"I'm sure I would have asked," Xander deadpanned, casting a sidelong look and a smirk at the bat. She grinned. Xander gathered his belongings, then crossed over to the other side to let Desmon out.

The bat looked around. Nobody was watching; she couldn't hear anyone in the vicinity (and if those ears couldn't hear anything, there was nothing to be heard). Great.  
She hopped out of the car and spread her wings before she even hit the ground. A bit of frantic flapping later, she had risen up and landed deftly on the metal railing outside their apartment on the second floor. She looked down expectantly; even at distance, she could see Xander roll his eyes. He began climbing the stairs two at a time, and in moments was unlocking the door.

Their apartment was, in a word, tiny. In two words: tiny, and _messy_. It consisted of two rooms- the main room, and the bathroom. The kitchen was relegated to one corner of the main room; in the exact opposite corner, above the window, Xander had rigged up a bit of mesh net, with no small amount of tacks and nails ("I'm not getting the deposit back on this fuckin' dump, anyway," he had reasoned). The net was padded by a pair of small blankets and a handful of small pillows.

No prizes for guessing who this setup was for; the moment the door was opened, Desmon hopped her way over and flew the short distance up into the suspended bed.

"So what do we do now?" Desmon asked, kicking back in her little nest, as Xander face-planted into the futon couch in the middle of the room (one of the few proper pieces of furniture in the apartment, and Xander's bed of choice).

"Nothing," Xander said, his voice muffled by the throw pillow his face was currently buried in. He was in no mood to spend his night doing much of anything; tomorrow he had to go back into work, and he had enough to think about as it was. After a moment, though, he did stand up- though just for long enough to retrieve a soda from the fridge and turn the TV on, after which he promptly face-planted into the couch again.  
"So you're sure," Xander said, "about the freaky crow?"

Desmon almost didn't hear him, between the fact that he was speaking into a pillow and the fact that the TV's volume was cranked up high. Still, though- bat ears.  
"Absolutely."

Xander paused, as though to think. "So. Chinese sound good for tonight?"

* * *

"So how'd it go?" Raumon asked, looking up from _Alice in Wonderland_ as Natalie walked into their room.

Natalie breathed out through her teeth and flopped onto her bed, staring up at the ceiling.

"That good?" the bird said, closing his book and setting it on the floor before clambering up onto his friend's bed.

"It's like talking to a brick wall," she said. "You're sure about the bat?"

Raumon nodded in response. "I don't know why, but I do know that it's something."

* * *

It was the Thursday after Xander had met up with Natalie, and since then, very little of consequence had happened. No more digimon had shown up- at least, as far as the mohawked boy or red-headed girl knew. Neither had made any attempt to contact each other in the interim, and both were just fine with that turn of events.  
Xander had spent his night as he always had- rehearsing to the point of exhaustion for the gig that the band had tomorrow night. The Rock Star, the place was called- a dive of a music club on the other side of the city. Kind of a dump, being honest, but a gig was a gig.

It was almost midnight by the time they got done, and by the time they had packed up their gear, the clock had already rolled over. Paul and Will had already cleared out,while Eric waited patiently (but not too patiently) for Xander and Desmon to scram.

"Hey, Desmon," Xander said as he opened the door that'd lead out to the driveway (and thus, to his car), preparing to ask the bat to get her ass in gear, but he didn't get to finish saying it. It was at this moment that, in his pocket, his phone began to buzz- a text message alert. He frowned, pulling out out with an under-his-breath hiss of _who the hell_ as he unlocked his phone. He heard sirens in the distance- probably just some prime example of human life crashing his car into a light post.

_From: Natalie - 00:08  
Check out the sky looking towards downtown. Digimon, maybe._

Well, that was _one_ way to break the ice, wasn't it? He hissed through his teeth.

_that's nice. but i'm busy. get back to me when something actually happens._  
He tapped back the message rapid-fire. Desmon gave him a quizzical look from the ratty couch.

"Are we going, or what?" the bat asked, her ears twitching.

"Yes. I've been waiting on you, pudding for brains," Xander mumbled, cocking an eyebrow.

"Who was it?" Desmon chirped, flitting out of her bed and to the floor, walking over alongside Xander.

"I'm leavin' you in the dark, bro," Eric said.

"Fine by me," Xander said, watching as Eric flicked the light off and retreated into his home. Light from street-lamps outside bled through the windows, meaning that he could still see his way well enough to get over to the door. Xander paused, then, considering whether or not he should let Desmon in on the knowledge. If he didn't, he knew that she - with no sense of privacy - would probably just go through his phone the moment he fell asleep, so, whatever. "Bird girl."

The bat's face lit up and her ears perked up. "What's she say?" Desmon said, tilting her head.

"Nothing of impor-"

At that moment, as if on cue, Xander's phone went off again.

"You should call her," Desmon chirped, knowing without being told who the message was from, before Xander even opened it.

"Yes, thank you for your insight. I don't care," the human snapped back, rolling his eyes and opening the text message.

_From: Natalie - 00:10  
Don't shoot the messenger. Figured you might be closer to downtown than us._

He was, of course, but that didn't mean he wanted to be the one running around on whims and hunches at midnight.

Xander moved to tuck his phone back into his pocket, but Desmon looked up at him, one eyebrow quirked, a smarmy expression on her face that he could see even in the dark. "What?" he muttered, but Desmon said nothing, merely continued fixing him with the same look.  
She did not change expression until Xander groaned loudly and began flicking through his phone to call Natalie as he swung open the door. Desmon went out first, flitting over to his car.

"Hey," Natalie's voice came over the phone within two rings.

"What's going on that's so important it's got you talking to me," Xander said, rolling his eyes. _This had better be good._

"Look towards downtown, and tell me if you're seeing what I was seeing. Sorry, a bit busy right now." By the sound of things, she was running down a flight of stairs.

"I'm not seeing jack," Xander said dismissively, even though he was still inside. He sighed, stepped outside and looked off his porch, towards downtown.  
Pause.  
"Strike that."

The moment he looked, he saw it, even though it was hard to make out clearly. From where he stood, he had a good enough, if somewhat obscured, view of the sky over downtown (they were pretty darn close to it, after all), and he could definitely see a shape. Desmon, for her part, was perched on top of his car, looking pointedly at it. It was...

A gigantic freaking _bird_, silhouetted against the halo of light surrounding the buildings. There was no reason for him to be able to spot a bird from this distance, no matter how fast it was approaching, unless the bird was the size of a Buick. It moved slow, barely beating its wings; it didn't seem to be causing any damage, but it didn't take much imagination to think that it might be what caused the sirens just moments before- if some excellent example of human intelligence had been craning his neck to look up at the bird from hell, he might have not been looking where he was going and caused an accident.

Filed under _not surprising_. (The idea that some genius might have caused an accident due to a giant bird, not the giant bird itself. That was plenty surprising.)

Desmon flew up to land on Xander's shoulder, and was about to exclaim, but he deftly reached up and held her snout shut with one hand.

"Yeah, see?" Natalie said; her phone picked up the sound as she opened her passenger side car door for Raumon, then circled around and climbed into the driver's seat herself. "You guys are welcome to check it out, but we're on the way."

"Riiight. Well. We'll see what happens." For a moment, Xander was tempted to tell her _you're on your own,_ but some prideful part of him refused to take this lying down. With that, his finger tapped down on the touch-screen and ended the call.

"We gonna?" Desmon said once Xander freed her mouth. Though she tried to stay calm, she couldn't hide the excitement in her voice. Something was happening. The young man sighed, closing his eyes and thinking for a moment. Desmon waited, expectant, with bated breath.

If Xander had checked the little device in his pocket, he would have seen a blinking dot, like a radar, flickering away on the black screen.

* * *

Xander wondered to himself why he apparently kept forgetting that he had a car, but really, the reason was that it would be impossible to track the thing in the sky except by foot, but still.  
Desmon had kicked off of Xander's shoulder and flew high above, taking care to hide behind trees, buildings, the like, even though it was dark. Occasionally, Xander would lose sight of the bat, but he didn't worry overmuch. She was trying to avoid being seen, and that was a goal he could get behind. The city was remarkably quiet (who went out on a Thursday night, really?), though far from dead.

"You're way too low down there on the ground," Desmon remarked quietly from up above; her friend cast her a slightly dirty look.

"Then stop moving," he said, maybe too quiet for her to hear- as he passed by a small group of clearly-drunk twenty-somethings hailing a cab. Well. More _bulldozed through_, but not the point. Desmon heard him, though, and paused, glancing down. Xander ignored the nasty looks they shot his back as he ducked into an alley, and for the second time, he found himself leaping onto a fire escape that wasn't his. He really hoped that nobody was inside to hear him taking the stairs two at a time and clomping across the landings.

Within a minutes' time, Desmon had landed on top of the building, and Xander heaved himself like a vaulter up onto the roof.

"Nice time, but technique needs work," the bat said, smirking. Xander flipped her off as she jumped up onto his shoulder. Both turned their attention upwards.

"Desmon."

"Yeah?"

"That a digimon?" Xander asked, furrowing his brow. It was close- it was very close. It was indeed a bird, if there had been any doubt before; giant, blue-black, and apparently, completely oblivious to the pair.

"Remember what I told you about the last one?" The crack about pudding. "The same applies here."

The corner of the young man's mouth twitched downwards. "Somehow I'm not surprised," he said. At that moment, from within his pocket, the little mysterious device began to emit a high-pitched, shrill beeping noise. Xander hissed, not wanting to take his eye off of his friend, but regardless, he dug into his pocket and fished the gizmo out. Lit up on its black screen were exactly two words:

_Saberdramon. Champion_.

Xander paused.

"And what the _hell_ is that supposed to mean!?" he yelled as though someone would answer him. Above him, though, he heard the sound of flapping wings, and it drew his attention back up. The dark shape was getting ever closer, about to pass over them, but it still didn't seem to notice Desmon or Xander yet.  
Key word: yet.

Before Xander could stop her, Desmon leapt off his shoulder, her tattered wings catching the air with little difficulty to speak of.

"Come on, you giant turkey! **Black Static**!" Desmon yelled, opening her mouth wide. Like she was releasing a shock wave, a series of - indeed - staticky black concentric rings were emitted from her mouth, flickering and crackling with energy.

"Get down here, you idiot!" Xander barked, but Desmon paid him no mind. The rings of energy flew at high speed, and those, if nothing else, got the giant flyer's attention, as they hit - harmlessly - its breast.

It turned its head down, and for the first time, both boy and bat got a clear look at it as it righted itself, flapping its wings to stay in position instead of gliding further.

It was, indeed, a tremendous bird- its body was covered in inky, blue-black feathers, but its wings and tail seemed to crackle with fire- it was impossible to tell where the feathers ended and the black flames began. Silver talons glinted, reflecting the light around them. Its beak was blunt and rounded, but it made up for it with - bizarrely - a plethora of sharp teeth poking out over its... could a bird, even a bird like this, really be said to have lips?

Not the point.

The giant bird glared down at Desmon, metallic-gold eyes glinting nastily. It offered no rebuttal, but spread its wings wide. "**Night Roar**!" it cawed, releasing a flurry of razor-sharp feathers from its wings. They burned like purple embers, silhouetted in the air like shooting stars for just a moment before they began to rain down on Desmon. They pelted away at the walls of the building, burning at concrete and brick like acid.

Judging entirely by how Desmon's attack did a fat resounding nothing, Saberdramon (as Xander assumed it was) had a clear advantage. The feathers were enough to knock Desmon almost out of the sky; she grit her teeth and stayed in the air, flapping frantically.

"That all you got?" she said with a cheeky grin. "Come on, birdy boy, we've got band practice to get back to."

"**Black Saber**!" Saberdramon called, swooping down lightning-quick, its claws pulsing with the same sort of energy that had engulfed the feathers of its previous attack. Desmon yelped, and was only narrowly able to avoid the grip of the bird's talons with a sudden, startled backwards motion.

Saberdramon swooped around in an arc, the air its wings beat back gusting over Xander- and the (thankfully scarce) people on the street below the building they were using as a battle platform, staring up and exclaiming.

Xander heard a car slam on the breaks to avoid another accident but still get a look up.

The young man hissed, trying to comb his mind for ideas. This one seemed more feral, instinctive than the one Natalie had described, that he and Desmon had chased last weekend. He looked at the little black and blue device; it yielded no answers aside from giving him a name for the big bird.

Saberdramon looped around, and once more spread its wings to fire dagger-like feathers. "**Night Roar**!"

This time, it _did_ knock Desmon out of the air- and Xander's mind shut off, out of _strategist_ mode as he leapt forward and into action. Luckily, Desmon wasn't far away; Xander was able to get underneath the bat and catch her. His arms, after all, was a much softer landing than the roof.

"God _damn_, you are an idiot," Xander muttered; Desmon chuckled, eyes still squeezed shut. He looked up, glaring at Saberdramon.

Okay. So the bird had come; it had a 'tude. It didn't seem to have an agenda, like Yasyamon, or if it did, it sucked at it. It was causing property damage. It had hurt Desmon. And it had put a damper in Xander's plans for the night.  
(Okay, it was the penultimate of these things that was the most important, but much like bird lips, that was _also_ not the point.)

"You feel up to trash this thing?" Desmon said, peering up at him with one cracked-open eye.

"I'm not feeling terribly charitable, no," Xander replied flatly, but he looked down and smirked.

Still clutched in one hand, even as he held Desmon in his arms, the little device began to glow.

It swirled with blue energy as one segment of the orange meter below the screen faded out. The screen began to display plenty of information- of course, now that Xander couldn't look at it, and too fast to make heads or tails of it. What was important was that Desmon began to glow, too; Xander let go of her, and she was actually suspended in the air instead of her dropping like a stone, as she too became surrounded by the blue energy.

"Desmon, drive evolve to..."

Desmon began to grow so rapidly that Xander had to step backwards, lest he be physically pushed away by her growing size. Her fur darkened by a full shade, as the webbing in her wings turned black. She kept the same general form, powerful large legs and huge wings, but she hunched forward more. Her ears grew longer and swept back, with silver rings hanging from both; from between them, a mane sprouted forth, running down to her neck, where it met up with a fluffy collar of white fur that had grown from the fluff on her chest. A silver metal collar was almost buried in the long fur there, and further down, a length of bandage settled around her waist

A long tail grew forth, covered in neither skin nor scale, a light blue shade it writhed and grew until it was as long as her body, and the tip erupted into a stinger like a scorpion's. This new tail swayed and moved almost like it had a mind of its own.  
She looked almost draconic, a wyvern mixed with a bat, as she rose into the air.

"**Corymon**!"

"Hell yes!" Xander exclaimed, pumping his fist with a wolfish grin on his face.

Saberdramon's eyes narrowed. "Hmph. Finally," it murmured- the first words they had heard it say that weren't it calling an attack. "A digimon that is not so weak."

Corymon said nothing, but quickly, she glanced downward. They had an audience  
Corymon was very thankful that she was not the one flapping her wings right over the street; she at least had a bit of the building to hide her from onlookers below. ... she'd have to make this quick.

"Where do you think you are, bub? I hate to be the bearer of bad news, but you're messing with my plans for the night," Coryon rumbled after a moment; the flaming black bird only snorted.

"**Night Roar**!" Saberdramon, indeed, roared, spreading its wings to release a rain of flaming feathers.

Corymon snorted, shaking her head. So be it, then. "**Black Stinger**!" she roared right back, flapping up a bit higher. Her tail curled below her, and began to glow with a black aura, much like the static rings she had released as Desmon. Within a second's downtime, the energy was released- as a short blasts, each shaped roughly like the stinger itself.

They smashed into Saberdramon, five in all, and _unlike_ Desmon's Black Static, Saberdramon could not shake these off like they were nothing. It keened loudly, glaring daggers at Corymon.

She responded by grinning, showing off rows of sharp teeth.

"Pick up the pace," Xander said, but not too loud. He had thought fast. He knew, though he could not see it, that what people were on the street would be getting out their cameras and doing as people in the modern age were wont to do whenever anything dangerous was happening. That is: want to be the first to document it.  
And he sure as hell didn't want his voice picked up.

"**Black Saber**!" Saberdramon flapped once to lift higher into the air. Its talons began to glow again, and it prepared to swoop.

Well, _pick up the pace_; Corymon had heard her partner- and she had no intention of drawing this out longer than she had to. "**Hurricane Rush**!"  
As though summoned by her words, the wind began to whip viciously around her. Xander swore he could see it, streams of airs tinted with a faint glow, swirling up around her- and he was confirmed when it grew stronger, both the wind and the glow.

Moving as though she weren't the size of a truck, Corymon surged forward, like she was going to headbutt Saberdramon in the gut. The sphere of wind surrounding her seemed to be a shield, smashing into the bird before Corymon would have actually connected. It burst like a bomb, throwing Saberdramon backwards. The black phoenix let loose a loud, ear-shredding keen as its body began to shift and distort, pixellating and- really, freaking the onlookers on the street right the heck out.

Saberdramon's loud cry only quieted down as it, like Yasyamon the weekend before, burst apart into glowing motes of light.

The data swirled around itself, and when a low beep sounded from Xander's little device, the pixel-like light focused like a beam and shot into the device. Just like Natalie's, the power meter restored to full, and the words _Drive Charge: Full_ flashed on screen.

Corymon did not yet dare to land on the building- she wasn't sure it could support her weight, and didn't have any particular desire to deal with angry building owners and property damage charges. She frowned, thought hard for a second- just for a second. While she thought, though, her larger body began to swirl with blue light.

Before she even realized it, lost so in thought, Corymon was once again Desmon.

"Get down here, you idiot," Xander said quietly, smirking up at the bat. She blinked, then did a double-take, looking down at herself. She was still flapping to stay aloft quite a ways above her partner, and now that she could land safely, she took that chance, dropping out of the air like a stone.

Xander instinctively caught her; she grinned. He rolled his eyes, smirked, and bumped her in the forehead with his knuckles. "I can't carry you down the fire escape, you know," he said. She'd have to be very careful getting away- the both of them would, to avoid suspicion.

"I can dream."

A few minutes later, Desmon was flitting above, taking care to avoid being seen; Xander had descended the fire escape and looped around through a few back alleys to avoid any connection to the scene that had just occurred.  
While he was less urgent, it was getting closer to 1 AM, and he still had work in the morning, and still had to drive back to his own apartment from Eric's place.

But even these concerns couldn't stop him from ringing up Natalie.

"We took care of it."


End file.
